My grandfather’s having surgery this morning. It’s not a difficult procedure, but because of his age, the doctors are worried about him being under a general anesthetic. So say a few prayers today, if you get a chance.
Hat tip to Dustbury, who posted about this….
A Johari Window is where you get to talk about how great I am. Yeah, that’s it. Heh. Actually, you can read the real definition here at Wikipedia It’s a personality tool, and there’s an online version, that you can help me with, if you want.
Anyway, here’s mine… it would be super-cool if you entered five or six attributes you think describe me. Then you can view the results, if you like.
If, you’d rather, here’s the flip side — the Nohari window, where you get to point out my flaws. Yeah, I knew that would be more fun for you. Here’s what you don’t like about me.
My dad made me three of these kick-ass cool cars when I was in elementary school, as part of the YMCA Indian Princesses Mini Derby race. They’re carved out of a block of wood and then painted. The idea was to race them down a track, and prizes would be awarded for the winners, and for best design. Of course we always won the second, and usually the first prize, too, because my dad would insert lead weights into the wood block at the center of the car. Other kids had generic blocks of wood on wheels, while I had these awesome real-looking cars. I need to take photos of the other two; one of them is a cool hot wheels crazy car, and the other is an early Indy race car.
Boing Boing recently had a post about some folks who put a webcam on their mini derby car. I’m sure if we had such a thing back when I was a kid, my Dad would have done it. And I still think my cars are cooler, btw.
My friend Joel gave me his old 36″ TV because he upgraded.
It’s funny, I’ve never actually bought a TV myself. My very first TV was a 13″ color set given to me by a college roommate. My second TV was a really old 19″ color TV that wasn’t cable ready and didn’t have a remote. I picked it out of the trash near my apartment building on Delaware street, and it worked great. So I hooked up a cable adaptor and changed the channels with my VCR remote. I had that TV in my bedroom until a couple years ago. After that, my dad gave me a new 19″ TV for Christmas, which I used in the living room. Then my friend Brad upgraded his TV, and gave me his old 29″ set a few years ago. So I shifted everything around and the TV from the trash went to Goodwill, the 19″ went upstairs, and the 29″ went in the living room. Now everything is shifting again, and the 19″ will go to my mom.
I promise in 2006 not to start an unnecessary war based on a lie with insufficient troops to whom after three years of fighting I still haven’t given enough body armor or a plan for victory.
Just kidding. I’m totally going to do that.
Here are my real resolutions:
1. MORE GAY SEX IN 2006. As I mentioned before, the religious right has started a campaign against gay sex. So I’m pledging a counter campaign — more (safe, responsible) gay sex in 2006. It’s the right thing to do.
2. Don’t buy books, except for book club where necessary. I have tons of books I need to read on my shelves, and I plan to get through as many of them as possible.
3. Scale down my possessions so Stephanie and I can live together.
4. Get on the elliptical more, eat better, and use the new heart I got last year to get in good physical shape.
5. Cook more. I really started gaining weight when I started eating crap out of a can. If I go back to fixing meals, I hope that will help me eat better.
How about you?
2005 Recap:
Well, there was the heart surgery. And Stephanie’s lumpectomy, too. But we did get to do some traveling toward the end of the year. We visited Louisville twice, and Chicago twice, and New York once. Plus we got to help out a little with the Indianapolis Human Rights Ordinance at the end of the year, which was great.
Plans for next year:
Stephanie is skating in the Gay Games in Chicago in July! That’s the major event that we’re planning. We also want to do a “Big Things” road trip in the spring, and we’re going to my cousin Sarah’s wedding on April 22nd.
This is one of those completely self-involved, totally uninteresting to anyone but me posts… I have a bad cold. I’m a human snot factory right now, and I have cold shivers. Fortunately I’m on vacation this week, and I was planning on hanging about the house anyway. But this sort of takes some of the fun out of it.
I’ll just be going through the medicine cabinet, trying to figure out what cold medicine will not give me a woozy feeling.
All I want to do with my life is to go to work, work hard all day, come home, and sit down with my dog and my girlfriend and read some books. And then later, take a walk around the block.
Why is it I can’t seem to make that happen? Why does everything always seem to get in the way of that?
The end of my vacation went out with a bang. On Saturday, we went up to Chicago to celebrate my friend Amy’s birthday by seeing the musical Wicked at the beautiful Ford Oriental Theatre. Then we had dinner and Rainforest Cafe and drove home. Sunday my friend Kathy came over and helped Stephanie and I do a bunch of activities around the house. We put stuff in storage for the winter, winterized some of the house, and did a massive clean-up of the attic by gathering up old insulation and putting down spanking new stuff. Kathy has a lot of energy; she got a ton of stuff done. Stephanie carried 15 trash bags of old insulation down to the patio. We had a small glitch when Kathy put her foot through the office ceiling, (d’oh!) but shit happens. We’ll have to tackle that project later.
I feel alot better about the vacation now; I got a ton of stuff done. (With lots of help).
We had out garage sale over the weekend, and it was a lot of work for very little result, unfortunately. I made $63, Stephanie made something like $20, and both of us practically killed ourselves preparing and tearing everything down. Most of it was that we didn’t have enough traffic; there were lots of people in the morning, but no one in the afternoon at all. I wonder how much advertising the neighborhood did… but that’s not really fair to blame the people who volunteered their time to set up the sale, either, because I know that’s hard work, too, and they deserve thanks for taking it on.
It’s also a little depressing to sell (or not sell) your own things, actually, which didn’t help my mood. I like all this stuff, really, it’s just that I have too much or it doesn’t work in my house or whatever. But I feel like it still has some value.
I should publicly thank our neighbors, also, for helping out. Patrick and Samika (I hope I’m spelling her name right) next door were great; they loaned us folding tables, and Samika helped carry stuff in out of the torrential downpour at the end of the day, as did our brand-new (as of this weekend) neighbor, whose name, I think, is Kyle.
Also, several of our friends showed up, which is hugely cool; Jen came by, Rachel visited, Bil and Jerame stopped in, Elizabeth and Joe were there, and Barb and Robin came by, too. Thank you all for supporting us!
Then I put gas in my truck this morning, and it cost me $36.19 for 13.715 gallons. That sucks, frankly. If I hadn’t been on fumes, I could have tried to shop around for a better price, but I haven’t been good with this vehicle about filling up before the tank is empty. I always was before. I need to get back in that habit quick, because the price of gas is too high to just stop at the nearest station out of necessity.
I kind of feel like Morgan Spurlock in the first episode of “30” where they were living on minimum wage, and the money kept going down the drain…
Stephanie and I saw King Kong with Dan and Doug, Josh, and David and Garrett on the Terrace at the IMA. It was great fun; the sound was much better than in the past, and I love seeing movies with Dan and Doug; I haven’t done that much recently, and I miss it. I spent a few minutes in the giftshop of the IMA while I was waiting around to buy tickets. They don’t carry as many art books as they used to, but it all looks very nice. I’m looking forward to visiting the IMA to see exhibits.
George and Timmy enjoy Kong
Photo Set: Pictures from the King Kong.
On Saturday, I got a lot of weeding done (I filled my entire trash dumpster with weeds) and managed to put a few items on eBay, so I rewarded myself with playing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Xbox. It’s an older game I got used, but it’s a lot of fun. Stephanie and I caught up on watching Big Brother 6 in the evening.
Sunday morning, I mowed the lawn for the very first time since my surgery. I felt fine and really had fun doing it. I love mowing the lawn. I also did more weeding and cleaned up the side of the house where we broke out the stairs a bit. There’s lots more to do there, but it looks better. And I spent the afternoon at Stephanie’s house helping her and her dad get her basement organized and building shelves for her VW collection.
I’ve been feeling much better lately; like I did before the surgery, only with more energy. There were times before where I was doing something active and I felt like I was climbing a steep hill; now I can do the same things and have energy left over. I’m not as strong as I used to be; I can’t lift things like I could before. But that’s just because I was fairly inactive for four months. I’ll regain muscle as I keep working.